Translated material
The book returns reality
Non/Fiction in the Central House of Science has become a field of study of the book market and a source of knowledge for readers
On Sunday, in the central house of the artist, the 20th exhibition of intellectual literature non/fiction ended. In total, more than 300 publishers took part in the exhibition, and about 400 events took place on the internal sites. According to the organizers, the exhibition was visited by more than 30,000 people.
The entire space was divided into six sections: the main, gastronomic, “territory of knowledge” (playground), a program of illustrators, a book antique fair and Vinil Club (where collectors could find rare musical documents of the era). The most discussed topic was the lists of recommended books from literary critics, bloggers, journalists, bookstores and simply unknown lovers multiplying geometric progression. Almost all of them coincided in the iconic books: “4321” Paul Oster, “Food block” by Alexei Ivanov, “All capable of breathing” Linor Goralik, “Beauty is the grief” by Eka Kourniana, “Against the Farms” of Maria Stepanova. Perhaps, perhaps, the list of the “regiment” project stood apart - its editors selected books exclusively about Russian writers and the literary process: for example, two volumes of Dmitry Prigov “Prigov D.A. Places. Thoughts ”, Evgeny Toddes with his“ chosen works on Russian literature and philology ”. But the most expected book of the exhibition “Endless Joking” David Foster Walles (AST; Astrel-SPB) was never taken.
“ It was not possible to promptly make a circulation due to the large volume of the book,” admitted the editor-in-chief of the editor-in-chief Assierge Tishkov . - But sales this year in any case did not disappoint us. As always, they took the books of Neil Gaiman, illustrated publications of Andrzej Sapkovsky, were looking for books by Gerald Brome, and from youth books of buyers were interested in the “Mint Fairy Tale” of the Blogar Blogar, Fantasy Lee Bardugo.
Top three books of the editors of Mainstream for Sales
Alexander Polar "Mint Fairy Tale"
Gerald Brom "Krampus. Loverian Yolya "
John Bellers "The Secret of the House with Cups"
High quality art translated literature was presented at the stand of Phantom Press. How the recommendation lists have influenced sales, we asked the General Director of the publishing house Alla Steinman :
- At the exhibition, we presented the entire range of 2018, 70 items. The top 3 books of Fantom were sold with a huge margin and amounted to 45% of the sales of all books of the publishing house, but the rest were sold much more modest. Hence the conclusion: it does not make sense to take books from a backlist on non-fiction, Longsellers are practically not for sale. Perhaps people do not risk buying unknown books without the recommendations of journalists or bloggers.
Top three Books Publishing House Press Presspo Sales
Eka Kournian "Beauty is Woe"
Richard Russo "Empire Falls"
Tana French "Secret Place"
The editor -in -chief of Corpus, Varvara Gornostaeva, comments on the trends at the anniversary exhibition:
- This section often came to us with lists who made up critics and journalists to the fair. I must admit that a huge number of good books appeared for everyone - a few years ago this was not, there was a lot of garbage at the exhibition.
Commercial publishers built their policy on mass literature. I also noticed that publishers ceased to be afraid of difficult topics: not from an ideological point of view, but from a commercial one.
Now the emotional wave is much more important than specific human destinies - a very correct social shift occurs in the literature. We have published the book “We are all mortals” - this is a logical continuation of the conversation about aging and death, which is conducted in the conditional West and is not at all in Russia, because readers do not want to be upset. But we see the trend to discuss those things that were not discussed before.
Top three books of the publishing house Corpuspo sales
Lara Vapnyar "So far here"
Viet Than Nguyen "Sympathetic"
Oleg Radzinsky "Random Life"
“Interest in domestic authors is markedly growing, readers are ready to open new names,” Ekaterina Panchenko, Deputy Director of Education No. 1, shares observations. - There is still a favor for thick novels, the reader is ready to buy both 1000 pages and multi -volume books, if there are reviews of critics and confidence in the publishing house. And more and more people use the exhibition as a showroom: they consider the book that interests them, and, without leaving the stand of the publisher, order it in the online store in paper or electronic form.
Top three Books of the Publishing House of Exmo for Sales
Julia Latynina "Jesus. Historical investigation "
Paul Oster "4321"
Dina Rubin "Napoleon convoy. Book 1: Ryabin wedge "
Anna Neumann, Director of Marketing for the Department of Applied Literature of the AST Publishing House :
- There is a feeling that there were more visitors and directly buyers. At the stand, AST non-fiction was in particular demand by the books of Maria Stepanova and Linor Goralik. Traditionally high sales had the “suffering Middle Ages”. Often they asked and bought beautiful gift publications by Edward Radzinsky and Paola Volkova. The new book of Max Fry “The heavy light of Kurtyin”, whose release took place at the exhibition, was sold out to be sophisticated.
The success of the Non/Fiction exhibition is not only associated with the possibility of buying the book novelties of the year in one place, but also with the atmosphere that is born here: the literary community that is actively existing on social networks, publishers freely communicate with their colleagues, readers and critics, and this greatly facilitates the understanding of how reader requests are formed and what trends appeared in literature over the past year.
“For me, life around books is very important-that which gives non-fiction,” says publisher AST Elena Shubina (“Elena Shubina editors”). - About long conversations about the “crisis and falling circulations” you can temporarily forget and simply rejoice at the abundance of books, ideas, professional, friendly, and jealous communication. And here, on non-fiction, it somehow becomes clear: who is who. This is a kind of Hamburg account.
Top three books "Elena Shubina editors" for sales
Katerina Gordeeva/Chulpan Khamatova "Time to Color ice"
Guzel Yakhin "My Children"
Alexey Ivanov "Podcheblok"
Ilya Danishevsky - head of the Angedonia project in AST and curator of the literature department in "Snob":
- Any exhibition in many respects about the communication of not only the reader -author, but also the reader -publisher. Including on the direct question "What to take?" Everything became clearer.
Danishevsky carefully monitors what colleagues are being released, and among the main books, Gabriel Wittkop, the book “Beauty is the grief” of Courniana (remember, is a kind of hope ”, Amichai (“ Signanniki ”).
The best sales of "Anghedonia" (AST)
Maria Stepanova "Against dislike"
Linor Goralik "All capable of breathing"
Ekaterina Shulman "Practical Political Science"
“Interest in everything that has been related to the work of the brain and human behavior has been high for many years,” says Pavel Podskosov , editor-in-chief of Alpina Non-Fixh. - The global bestseller of neurobiologist Robert Sapolsky “Biology of Good and Evil. How science explains our actions ” - hit No. 1 at the ANF stand. The interest in history is great - Dan Jones's “Templars” and “Hannibal’s oath” John Prevas was sold incredibly well. In third place is traditionally astrophysicism, space and the future of our species - here is the new book by Mitio Kaku “The Future of mankind”, the “stamina” of the American astronaut Scott Kelly, “why we exist” by the physicist Lawrence Krauss. The reader is becoming more demanding every year, and I am glad that we have something to offer him.
Top three books "Alpines non-fiction" for sales
Robert Sapolski "Biology of Good and Evil"
Dan Jones "Templars. Birth and death of the great order "
Mitio Kaku "Future of Humanity"
Many small independent book publishers came to Non/Fiction. They consider the current exhibition perhaps a revolutionary breakthrough.
- A few years ago, at the entrance to the main hall of the fair, the so -called united stand of the alliance of independent publishers appeared (such a humanitarian initiative that made it possible for little
Publishers and shops unable to pay for the stand in the Great Hall, still participate in the event), ”explains Anna Izakar, the co-owner of the Story of Words and the Director of the Assortment . - This stand “in the hallway”, with publishers who tried to fit all their treasures on one square meter, was always outsider and quite marginal. Buyers passed by, in the Great Hall, the sales were small. This year everything has changed dramatically:
In the large hall, which was occupied by giants of the book business, it was stuffy and boring, and the whole life of the fair concentrated around the stand of small publishers.
Those who turned out to be in the main room already complained about sales. Of course, in real life, no competition (in the terminology of business) between small and large publishers and distributors is impossible, but we definitely won the local battle for reader preferences that unfolded on the second floor of the Central House of Artists. And in principle, the movement against the current, such an “anti -Mainstream” is the main trend of this fair. The search for something unique, non-obvious, “low-down”, and in general-a return to the intertwined sheets of paper in the hope of ousting from the head an infinitely and meaninglessly flickering Facebook tape. It seems that the book slowly rehabilitates itself: as a tangible object of the real world, it is able to return reality to a person.
Top three books "Order of the Words" for sales
Mikhail Trofimenkov “History of Russian Cinema in 50 films” (Word Order, 2018)
"Tarkovsky. Dreams "(Word Order, 2018)
Jan Fabr "I am an error" (Electrotheater Stanislavsky, 2018)
A lot was said at the exhibition about the death of thick literary magazines in connection with the closure of the "Journal Hall". But the fair showed that the paper press is loved and in demand by the reader. For example, people constantly crowded at the stand of the updated “friendship of peoples” - they considered her new craft cover and were interested in how the authors fell into the pages of the magazine.
How “friendship of peoples” works today, said Alexander Snegirev, deputy chief editor of the magazine:
-I play the role of the editor-hunter, agree with my acquaintances of the authors so that they provide us with materials for free, because our financial situation is such that we cannot pay fees. But our contemporaries are happy to respond to my calls. As a result, the 11th issue of the magazine is filled with star names: you will see the first part of the novel by Alexei Ivanov there, specially written for us, the essay of Shamil Yidiatullin ... Writers feel the need in the dialogue-when they give us texts, they understand that people who may not have money for a book can buy them. The magazines are now a great prospect. We look very fashionable, for 200 rubles we offer a magazine in which the material is enough for several books - this is an anthology of writers living today. Today we are observing the revival through the crisis.
TOP sales "Friendship of Peoples"
- 150 magazines sold
Ekaterina Pisareva - especially for "New"